The war of 'start-up' advertising

Amidst all the mad commotion over ecommerce brands spending mega bucks and ad agencies clamouring to get a piece of their business, at least one agency has decided to play it cool and do a reality check. This sense of cool is of course after burning their hands with some of their clients to the extent where it has led to a robust outstanding balance. As per our moles, this independent agency of a decent vintage has had a bad experience with at least three of its ecommerce clients — one of them has gone bust, another one has been keeping their payments on hold on silly pretexts like ‘the sales are not happening’ as if selling of merchandise was also mandated to the agency.

And yet another one has been passing on extra jobs to the agency without adding anything on the remuneration front. The agency in question has decided that enough is enough and there is no point in having these Page-3 entrepreneurs on the roster if it can’t be a rewarding relationship. They have started saying no to ecommerce businesses, and are particularly wary of the Series A and B funded start-ups, deciding to work with them only on advance payment terms.